CHAPTER 5 SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, & RECOMMENDATION

5

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, & RECOMMENDATION

Tolu Ogunlesi, Poet, essayist, and features editor at Timbuktu Media/NEXT Newspapers writes on the definition of the Nigerian printing and (book) publishing environment as thus:

“Nigeria has no national funding for the arts, no government-run grants-awarding body to support the production of books, and no National Book Policy…Illiteracy is rampant, half the 150 million people live in poverty, and for most people buying a mere paperback remains a luxury”.
In a country where such publishing environment is the norm; where more than half of the population is estimated to live below the poverty line, and where a paperback will consume a chunk of the average monthly income, newspaper-buying remains a luxury, and establishing a newspaper publishing outfit is a big investment with abundant risk.
Beyond low-literacy and poverty as causes for the poor media literacy in children, other highlighted factors include: poor motivation, unavailable infrastructures like classrooms and libraries, low media access, and the issue of parenting.
Children’s minds are quite pliable and develop through interaction with others, in specific social settings, and through concrete social experiences. They learn mostly by imitating things they perceive. There are important social differences in children’s media literacy, relationship, exposure and influence; and the family plays a particularly significant role in this respect.
This is especially important when it comes to formulating interventions: it implies that learning does not have to wait until children are deemed to be developmentally ‘ready’, but can proceed in advance of development (Buckingham, 2005).
The major findings of the study are classified in the following perspectives:

(1) Children in Lagos are media savvy.

(2) What they tend to access from the media, or what might interest them, may vary but they it is necessary.

(3) Children find reading news reports as a very important activity to engage in for their development.

(4) Children’s reading patterns are influenced by several factors such as, availability, accessibility, social norm, peer influence, mentoring, and parental guidance.

(5) Children’s media participation could be improved through newspapers.

(6) Children would read only what interests them.

(7) Children need to be motivated to appreciate the benefits of reading and being part of the newspaper media process (not solely as receivers of media messages).

Several other studies have earlier made similar findings. Such studies conducted posited that Children are more likely to relate to new ideas if it comes easily to them. This gives credence to the predicates of the Diffusion of Innovation theory, and confirms that the late majority as well as the Laggards may be converted faster than expected. Print Media literacy participation must be fun, not work!

Similarly, the banal hypothetical statement by most local teachers, where they generalize the notion that “children do not pass their exams because they do not read”, may have been falsified. The problem may not be in the fact that children do not read (because the findings already shows they do), but probably in what they choose to read or rather find interesting and consider relevant based on their own judgment.

The mass media commands a profound attention amongst children no doubt, with majority of them ascribing to at least one particular type to meet several needs. Capitalizing on this attribute in children whose minds are pliable, to achieve a strong readership audience for a children’s newspaper was what this research partly set out to achieve. Most young people are interested in the world around them and interested in keeping up with community, national and international issues.

Yet this young generation is not nearly as engaged with the news media as it could (or should) be. There are powerful—and in most cases relatively easy—steps news organizations at every level can take to engage young audiences and achieve impact, profitability, exposure, literacy and journalistic excellence while doing so (Stopher, 2011).